Welcome to My Tiny Brain Wave #4, the feature wherein, now and again, intermittently, when the mood strikes and a lightbulb goes off, I will be posting ideas that I've come up with that are NOT A CRAFT (gasp) but rather a clever idea that might help with crafting in some smallish way.
Today, I will be discussing the butter knife, that stainless-steel stalwart of the tablescape. You know the one. You place it to the right of the dinner plate according to that old adage: fork on the left.
NO. NO, IT COULD NOT.
Here's a partial list of all the ways in which the butter knife improves your life everyday. Besides spreading butter (and ALL other spreadables) like there's no tomorrow, you can use it as a stirrer, a screw driver, a paint scraper, a letter opener, a putty knife, a carving tool, a spoon replacer, an emergency sun reflector. Need I say more? Okay, just a few more. A back scratcher, a very small mirror, a thing to reach for other things stuck in hard-to-reach places, a catapult, a magnet tester, a dry-crusty-playdough-in-carpet remover. I could go on all day. But I'll stop there. It suffices to say that your life would be significantly disimproved were it not for the beloved butter knife.
That is all.
Actually, that's a bald-faced lie. There is one final thing I'd like to share with you about that ubiquitous utensil and my dear friend, the butter knife. It makes a superlative paper creaser à la bone folder.
Grab the card or paper you want to fold. Place a ruler along the intended fold line. Flip the butter knife over so the serrated edge is up. Now firmly run the blunt back edge of the butter knife along the ruler's edge.
Observe the beautiful crease left by the butter knife...
Gently fold your paper or card along the crease. Look at that fold. Perfection.
And then, make as many creases and folds as you like!
Use the butter knife to help you improve the look of many projects, like this one for example, or this one. I don't know about you but I love my butter knife dearly, and could not live without it. Do you have any special use for your butter knife? If so, I'd love to hear ALL about it!
In the meantime, have yourself a lovely day, and I'll see you again soon!
Thank you for your helpful advice. I look forward to the next bit Xx
ReplyDeleteExcellent idea. I daresay it could be used on fabric too, in place of a hera marker, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteI love it!! On my list of things to buy is a scoring board or blade. Now I don't need one! (or at least not as soon!) thanks!!!
ReplyDeleteHahahahahaha.... you are HILARIOUS. This is awesome. Thanks for the late afternoon pick me up.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant!! They make good cake testers too!
ReplyDeleteI've used it for all those things in your list - except a bone folder and a catapult. And BTW, I don't have a bone folder and need one. Thanks for the brain wave! Now to fold a paper airplane and catapult it someplace!
ReplyDeleteI love your lightbulb moments.... I have been known to use one to dig up weeds (ssshhh! terrible!)
ReplyDeleteHugz
Oh my gosh. A butter knife in place of a bone folder! Why? Why didn't I think of that?
ReplyDelete'significantly disimproved' hehe. Hey, you're a lefty! I should have known. I'm not, but always wanted to be. I may, or may have not, used a butter knife to do all of the above. Mostly I use it to keep tightening the screw on the top of my salt grinder that keeps loosening, resulting in rocks of salt dropping in my dinner, instead of nice little tasty grains.
ReplyDeleteOh you always bring things to mind that i would never even think of!! Great post :-)
ReplyDeleteSorry to disapoint you Michele, but ive only used my for butter....lol x
ReplyDeleteanche io uso un vecchio coltello di mia nonna per fare le piegature alla carta :o)
ReplyDeleteDear Michelle, thank you for showing me the glory of the butter knife. I used it recently on a card I made.
ReplyDeletehttp://artperspective.wordpress.com/coat-thank-you-card
In order to get straight lines without errors (and subsequent refolding), I used a ruler to draw my fold lines, scored them with a butter knife, and then proceeded to make the folds against the pressed butter knife. Thank you. :)